COLOMBO, March 15: Organisations championing the rights of free media on Thursday condemned the decision by the Mahinda Rajapakse government to freeze the assets of a newspaper group publishing articles critical of the government.

The government on Wednesday sealed the bank accounts of the English daily, the Weekend Standard, days after freezing the assets of the Mawbima Sinhalese newspaper.

The Reporters Without Borders and the Colombo-based Free Media Movement condemned the action, describing it as an ‘intimidation tactic’. Media rights groups point out that the newspaper staff and its owners had harassed after the paper wrote articles critical of President Rajapakse and his brother.

The Free Media Movement in a statement said on Thursday it was disturbed on the reports that the bank accounts of the two newspapers had been sealed.

“Mawbima is a critical newspaper and has a wide circulation among the Sinhala population. It is published by Standard Newspaper Private Limited. Mawbima newspaper has been under increasing pressure from the government over a few months. This is a clear violation of freedom of expression. Bank accounts of all other business establishments owned by the Standard Newspaper group owner Tiran Alles, too has been sealed,” the FMM said.

“The Free Media Movement strongly condemns these intimidating tactics of the government and urges the media community to rally around to defend the rights of the Mawbima newspaper in particular and against increasing autocratic tendencies in general,” the release said.